


The Women Zelda Loves

by Sophisticated_Dude



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors
Genre: AU Where Impa Raised Zelda, Depressed Zelda, F/F, Suicidal Zelda, Very AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-02
Updated: 2016-07-02
Packaged: 2018-07-18 10:52:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7312108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sophisticated_Dude/pseuds/Sophisticated_Dude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Linkle wanted to meet the princess one day, and Zelda is about to be consumed by her own demons, while Impa made some hard choices for her princess' future.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Women Zelda Loves

Zelda was a slut, then. So that's how it was. Ever since the Temple of Time's new Sage was appointed, she learned that being a lesbian made her less that a whore. As depressing as that was, it got worse. Anyone who even thought anyone of the same gender was attractive were told to leave. The whispered words echoing her own conclusion hurt way more than the indirect finger pointing, and the shame she brought her family weighed heavily on her heart, now the whole kingdom new. Impa was silent as ever, but the sad acknowledgments in the hall made her hopeful that Impa didn't detest her, but even that was doubtful, she didn't say anything to her. Zelda counted the days. It was Loredas now, tomorrow would have made two weeks. Two weeks wrapped in prison of flesh, an oppressive mind sending her to this dark time and hurting her parents. More than that, she hurt Hyrule, how could she be it's queen now? Would any man even want her to use her now? Probably, but they wouldn't be the kind allowed to rule with her. So the crown would go to her father's niece or nephew or something.

Today was, fortunately, the last of this...whatever it was. Hell of a sort, she supposed, and she'd created it. If tomorrow found her, it'd been two weeks. She dropped hints to Impa about how she wondered what the afterlife would be for her, and how she wished tomorrow wouldn't come, and how she'd rather be tied up and burned until dead than feel all the stuff she was feeling. And now here she was, up here, in a bell tower. This was the way she wanted it to end, after all.

She looked down at the pyre beneath her. Ousting her kind from the Temple of Time was done in preparation for a feast. It was strange, five years ago no one cared about her or what she thought or what she felt, but five years ago she was just barely a teen, maybe a year or so plus. She thought about it. Her birthday was five months away, so seven months into her fourteenth year, so she was a year and seven months into it.

She could smell the sweets from here, there were always sweets, it was always festive. She started to cry as she fondly remembered her first apple strudel. It was sweet and the dough melted in her mouth, while the filling scorched her tongue. She fell to the floor and cried harder. How come they made it so simple back then, why didn't they do more than ask if any boys were on her mind, why didn't they say, "Uh-oh, a  _girl_ isn't on your mind, right?" and then she'd have this weird look on her face. They'd mistake it for disgust or childhood innocence, and explain how bad that'd be, and then offer her the right answer, "But you like boys, right?"

Of course. If someone said something and offered the right answer, always take the right answer. Every time. At least she'd have years to contemplate it, but ever since she was seventeen, people expected her to be stalking some prince or something, instead she wanted to hang out with friends who easily vanished the next day. She was angry and shut them out for a long time. Them being anyone who acted funny before or after her friend's sudden disappearance. No one asked her what was bothering her because nobody was in the dark, they all got shut out. Then her birthday came along and she took a reluctant step out of her library. Damn, but nostalgia hurt.

Now things were complicated and she had to simplify it. That was, of course, the best thing she could do. She couldn't be alone, even though that was what they'd allow her to do, because now _she_ was in the wrong, and everyone accused her of lying, or said it was just a prank, or that she was getting a childish "revenge" for having her friends taken away. _Now_ they admit it! She hated the world, and she would set the record straight--she wasn't straight. It was simple, no trickery, no tomfoolery, the good girl they knew her as was gone. They treated it like murder, and she supposed _somebody_ had to execute the villain. They treated her like she was dead. They were just waiting for the coroner to call the cause.

She crawled up to the edge, and climbed alongside a pillar. She was in her favorite nightgown, it loosely hung to her, like the suspense around her and the castle. She stared in awe at the fire below her, it was beautiful and bright from here. She convinced herself it was pure, and imagined falling in again and again until she didn't cringe, until she craved it's caress like a long lost lover's. She smiled at her burned fingers. She didn't heal them, she wanted to remember last night, how the candle licked her fingers. It hurt, of course it did, but having felt nothing else, she told herself over and over that it was love. She knew it was stupid, but unless she could imagine a warm, tender embrace, hot licks of fire, fiery touches upon her back, leaving marks, burning strokes along her sides, perhaps she would cry out as a stake penetrated her--unless she could make it seem more like love, she wouldn't find the will to jump. Unless she could fool herself for five seconds, she would cower back. She murmured sweetly to herself, saying such wonderful and loving things as she had only hoped would one day be said.

"Night...the darkness is your raven hair...the moon is your pupil...all around are stars in you eye." she held onto the pillar and pulled out a sketch. She'd drawn herself and a black haired version of herself, purple eyes, a loving smile. She named her Consumer, the one who corrupted her and freed her. She didn't want to be free, she wanted to be bound by love...and so she would marry Consumer on an alter of ashes. She would be loved tonight, and for a brief instance she hoped so hard that it felt like praying that she'd would be impaled, fate and body sealed, she would not be able to spread the fire to anyone else because she would be impaled. It didn't matter where, so long as it held her, so long as didn't let her create chaos.

She took a deep breath and turned her eyes to the sky, "Hylia...I know you won't hear me...but I am sorry, for all I've done, for all I'm about to do...please, just... let your good favor rain gently on my family." she took another breath and stood feet together, knees bent, arms held back, and aimed for the middle of the pyre. She wouldn't close her eyes, her tears made it hard to see as it was, but she wanted to glide onto a stake or tree or something. She had one chance to do the right thing the best way she could. She felt second thoughts creeping in, but closed her eyes and imagined Consumer laying on a bed, waiting for her. She opened her eyes and just as she felt the tension in the muscles of her legs and started to focus on the release, she heard a soft voice break the night. Her own.

"I don't want to die!" she was afraid someone heard her, but no one looked around, the shadows below her continued to weave through each other, and jumped back. She ran to a pillar and cried. She would hide here and starve at best. All her time preparing her mind didn't help for this. She just wanted to be happy again. She just needed time, time to lean against the pillar and cry until she was convinced that nobody would realize she was missing, and, thus unloved, would end everything.

"Please...I don't really want this...I can't see any other way! Suffering or death, why do I choose the latter, but out of desperation for relief, so please, Hylia, Din, Farore, Nayru, forgive me, a life ended too short...I wish I could have been better for you, I've contributed nothing...so much wasted potential-!" Zelda swallowed as buried herself in her hands, "I could survive...if only I had some relief...if only I had a hero, like in the fairy-tales, to save me from this dark dungeon! I don't wanna do this!"

 

Zelda darted to the edge, grimly staring at her demise. Consume became a demon, and stood to her feet, her clothes burned into nothing and she reached up to Zelda, one hand stroking down her body, lurching forward as that hand rested on her pubic region. There were two Consumes--no, three! Touching each other as they danced like those girls she saw in her father's throne room when she was supposed to be outside with her mother. She held the pillar as the wind urged her. The winds were the hands of those demons, pulling at her, promising her love and satisfaction. To _live_ and enjoy it...what she only ever wanted.

Suddenly she heard soft grunts under her own tears. Was she going crazy in her last moments? Was this how it was? She saw no one. She buried her face in her arms, rested those on her knees. She didn't hate anything, just herself. She was a problem.

A soft thud and jingling caught her attention, but too late, as the figure held her hand, "Majesty," a soft voice called out, nothing but endless kindness in sparkling blue eyes, "why are you up here?"

"I want to die...if you could just give me a push, make this easier for me to go-!" she was interrupted by a hiccup, but the slowly shaking head kept her quiet. She wouldn't take out an innocent in this struggle of hers, though having her hand held would have made it easier to jump.

"Please...don't wish such a great travesty on the world, Hyrule may consider you a curse, but you...Princess Zelda...I...how I've love you from afar! Come with me, together we can see the world, together we can make things better for _our_ world...a world were women can be heroes, and princesses can love one another in ways that only princes have been allowed." Zelda was convinced that the sweet words were the goddess' own, an angel, perhaps, sent to reassure her. No. To save her. This was the answer to her lamenting prayer. She was sure she was just wishing that that was true, probably this girl was here to make her doubt herself, perhaps drag this out longer. She would still take the offer, though. Before she could voice her consent, the girl pulled her hood back and revealed the most beautiful strands of blond, bangs swept in gentle arches, braids on either side and wrapped in red near the ends. This was truly Hylia herself. The angelic vision before her pulled at her arms, guiding her down into safe, warm arms.

"I don't deserve to see such beauty." Zelda remarked absentmindedly.

"That's not true...you're probably ten times as lovely as I am." the blond replied, meeting her eyes with vicious benevolence.

"No, I mean...I'm unworthy of your kindness." Zelda blushed and stammered, "You _are_ very lovely, though."

"Why are you unworthy of such kindness? Because of the way you are?"

"Y-yes..."

"I'm that way, too...I always wanted to meet the princess, as a child...I've heard of the struggles you've been having, and came to take you from this place."

"Well, you have me...I guess that makes you my only friend, and so my best friend..."

"I don't want to be 'the princess's' best friend, I want to be _Zelda's_ best friend." her acquaintance explained, "I want to be your friend because...I'm like you, you're the only one who understands."

"I'm not interested in friends...friends leave me...I thought I had friends, but I see now...our true nature, selfish, backstabbing, hateful creatures...Hylia, are you proud of us?" Zelda laughed, "Ironic, they call lesbians whores, yet they are hateful and snobbish, or is that my own snobbery speaking? Either way, the world is so brutal...I don't know...I suddenly doubt following you, the world is large and I'm scared, what if they find us? I suppose I'm rejecting your offer of the one thing I want..."

"We'll have a good run of it!" the girl nodded to her words, enthusiasm suddenly rising in Zelda. Honestly, she mistook it for bile, having forgotten the feeling of enthusiasm.

"You'll have to promise not to leave me then..." Zelda's tears scratched down her face as she held the new girl like life itself, and sobbed loudly.

"I promise to never leave you...I know enough about you to know that I am truly and helplessly in love with you."

"Love...if you are willing to give it...and what you've done this far...with no demands...I will love you, too. I will do whatever pleases you. My love."

"Silly, that's not how love works...it'll take time, but you'll feel it."

"I don't want to wait that long, I've already almost...gods, what have I almost..."

"Zelda..."

"Just to think...right now I could be dead..."

"Don't think on it...the name's Linkle."

"Linkle?" Zelda looked up at her and frowned, "I expected you to be taller."

Linkle laughed, "I get that a lot...people see my twin puppies and expect them to be bigger, too!"

"Puppies?" where had Zelda heard that slang before...a book of some sort...it referred to..."U-um, those?"

Linkle laughed as Zelda pointed at her breasts, "Once or twice, but I meant there," she gestured at her boots. In the pale moonlight Zelda caught a glimpse of metal; come to think of it, Linkle's bows were said to be on her boots, "but I forgot that that was slang for something else, I apologize."

"It's fine...I don't care how big you are...I just thought that the person who singlehandedly held off a dark lord and multiple Gerudo would be more imposing...I'm glad I was wrong."

"Well, the king didn't want me to make it, which is how I wound up alone...I was pretty pissed about it, and told him that if I saved his army the trouble, I'd get to see his daughter...oops, I said that 'p' word...sorry."

"Pissed, you were pissed at him, so am I...pissed at everything, really. I remember hearing recently that he said...'Screw my daughter, if you complete the mission, I'll let you-'...um, well, he said stuff about having someone's way with me...I assumed he meant a man."

"Nope! That was moi, he seemed like a real stink-face, I hope anyone who overheard thinks he's an evil, ugly slug, but you know, I would have gone out there anyways. This was actually my revenge."

"To break in here and steal his daughter?" Zelda asked, amused.

"No, to break in, free his prisoner, and make him sick to the stomach."

"Huh?"

"In a week you will hear that the king's on his deathbed, but it's an exaggeration, he'll have heartburn, vomiting, and diarrhea, but he'll make it."

"That...I didn't mean for that wish to come true."

"What wish?"

"I wished the other day that he would be as sick as I felt, to suffer the pain in my stomach...I didn't think it'd happen."

"Wow, that's perfect, then...should I stop him from getting any? The first barrel on has enough wine for one glass, I can light it up if you want."

"No...I don't care, I'm shutting them out again..."

"Zel? You wanna talk about the 'again' part of what you're doing? How many times have you shut them out?"

"This is the second time..." Zelda clenched her jaw, sniffed hard, and cried into her hands, but...Linkle wouldn't let her cry into her hands, and why would Zelda turn down her shoulder? The cloak she wore was soft and she loved it. Linkle reminded her of the fairy-tale about the girl with a riding hood. It was as red as roses, but Linkle's was as green as a forest. She thought on that, it calmed her, she thought about the fairy-tales, thought about the mystery and wonder and, "Ooh, did it happen? Is it made up? Is this, in fact, a true story?" and her tears slowly stopped pouring. She looked up at Linkle, then coughed. Something crushed her heart and she grimaced, held the back of Linkle's shoulder, and buried her face into Linkle's shoulder again.

The blond hushed gently, made shushing noises as she stroked her back. And then Zelda realized what had such a firm grip on her heart. Betrayal, Impa wasn't here, wasn't there in the last few days, and that hurt, because Impa was supposed to be her friend, she was supposed to be able to tell Impa anything. It's not like she hid the fact she liked other girls...the signs had all been there, right? Overeager to see her fellow princesses, the way she straddled one when she pinned them during a pillow fight, then realized, "Hey, this is inappropriate" and slipped off, muttering apologies, blushing, looking at Impa, some part of her looking for advice, but not wanting to ask, "Is this normal?" Why didn't Impa ever ask if there was something going on, unless she knew? Why would she be so surprised? So turned away from the woman she practically raised?

Linkle's tough was feather-light as she ran her hands through the brunette's locks. Linkle didn't do more than jump as Zelda lost the strength to keep her neck upright, tired and stressed and a little peckish, and she lowered her head to cry into the warrior's bosom. But she gave the skin of her forearm a rough twist to help her become aware enough to get off the visitor, "I-I apologize!" she stammered, crying tiredly, she turned to sit next to Linkle.

Linkle jumped when she hard a sound crack as Zelda sat with her. The princess tossed herself to the floor and cried again. Linkle walked around the crying princess and knelt, "Zelda, I'm going to touch your head, okay?" Zelda nodded, and Linkle felt through the soft, more importantly, dry hair, and down when the princess was unwilling to sit up.

"Please, I just want to go to sleep, I don't want to hurt my head again, I just...I don't want to move." Zelda cried.

"I understand that...but your head should be elevated anyways, I don't know how long you want to be there, and I don't want your neck to be sore...so I'm going to rest you right here, alright?" Linkle patted her thigh, above her knee, Zelda nodded, but whimpered as she pulled back.

"Don't drop me." she begged.

"I won't drop you." Linkle promised, guiding her princess to rest on her thigh, "Is your head sore?"

"A little...it's not bad, though...just a-I don't want to think about it." Zelda jumped as she noticed a crouched, red eyed figure on the stone banister.

"What is this, Princess?" the dangerous edge to the voice was unmistakable and Zelda held up her hand.

"I'm alright, okay, Impa?!" Zelda yelled, "You can go back to your room now!"

"What brought this on?" Impa inquired, watching from the shadows.

"You did! Abandoning me, when I needed you the most you were gone!" Zelda held defiantly to Linkle's leg, as though Impa was anywhere near close enough to take Zelda away from her.

"How did I abandon you?" Impa growled.

"You know how! You don't even talk to me anymore, it's like I'm a ghost, it hurts!" Zelda's eyes were sore from crying as it was...she contemplated a long nap after this was done, "You were my friend..."

"Zelda...if I spent time with you then, you would have clung to me...I'm not your mother, and you mother...she doesn't speak with you-"

"She didn't f-fucking raise me, did she?!" Zelda spat.

Impa recoiled, "True, but who but you or I would have known that? If your mother isn't talking, then do you realize how foolish it is for me to talk to you? People would think _I_ made you this way!"

"No one made me-"

"I know! But those fools down there, do you think _they_ believe that? Do you?!"

"Shut up!" Linkle pointed at Impa and ran her hand along the short rise of muscle just below Zelda's shoulder, "Don't yell at her...she's already upset enough, now come here and hug her, dammit!"

Impa blinked twice and stared at the ground.

"Impa?" Zelda whispered, too many emotions to pick a dominate one, but what hurt most was the hope and fear in her voice.

"I don't deserve to have such a...kind and patient ward...I've been privileged, blessed, truly, and I didn't want to be split apart from you just because you like girls...but I didn't know where to begin...I've known for a while now that there was something different about you...you were always shy around other girls, but I couldn't think of anything I could say...if you were found out, it'd be over, I accepted that. Zelda, if I had anything to say, it would have been that I'm like you...but if told to you, or to the king or public or whatever, then I'd be well and truly done, fired from the best job in the world, raising you...I wanted you to have a normal life...I've failed you..." suddenly the pair of red, gleaming eyes rose up to meet Zelda's sparkling blue ones, "I failed because of my silence, but should I have risked mandatory resignation, or to be expelled from the castle altogether? People would pity you, think I've kept you as my lover all these years, I didn't want that to be how I was remembered by people, and I didn't want you to be burdened with their stupid questions...they'd ask yes or no questions, like if I tried to...do anything to you, or if I ever...touched you inappropriately."

"I would have said 'no' every time!" Zelda cried, frustrated that Impa's choices thus far were guided by fear of being pulled away.

"You'd want to! But...eventually...you'd end up with no choice, you...must...say...'yes', eventually you'd get that, eventually you'd see that there would is no way out but 'yes'...you'd be a victim, they'd spend the rest of their lives 'treating' you, trying to make you like men, you'd be miserable. I'd hate myself forever if that happened...best leave them angry with you, blind by their own anger and drunk off their 'wisdom', and I always felt like telling you my...preference was a dangerous path, anyways...if I told you, wouldn't it have been strange afterwards?"

"No...I mean, it's not strange for parents to let their children know by kissing their other parent...and I knew you'd never...oh, Impa, I know you'll never betray me!" Impa visible shook and ran from the shadows, and pulled Zelda into her arms.

"Zelda...I'm sorry, I put you through this...I'm so, so sorry...I can't say enough how horrible it felt for me...I can't imagine what it was like for you." Zelda cried as she held Impa like she always did, she was literally cradled, as though Impa was a human hammock, "Zelda...I shouldn't ask, and I know I don't deserve it, but-"

"Yes! Oh, yes, Impa, I forgive you!" Zelda leaned back and looked up at the gentle smile the older woman now wore, smiled up at her and whispered breathily before resting against Impa's shoulder, "I know you didn't want to, I know!"

"Looks like your friend wants you back, now, though." Impa teased, pulling Zelda higher against her shoulder.

Zelda chuckled and turned to Linkle smiled awkwardly, "I didn't say or do-" Linkle began, trying to clear up Impa's statement as a joke.

"Hah, come here, Linkle!" Zelda called out, pulling Linkle close to her.

"So, you know I'm going to have to put her through some serious vetting before I turn you loose with her, right?" Impa teased.

"Oh, Mom!" Zelda laughed.

"Ha, ha, vet away!" Linkle challenged, feeling more comfortable around Zelda's "mom" than she was a few moments ago.

**Author's Note:**

> The plot haunts me, I hate it and love it at once...so...  
> This will be awesome smut later. Until then, I leave you this. Thoughts, hate mail, biblidy-doos in the comments, please! ;)


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